I was recently reading an article published by a vocal coach asking vocal students some prominent questions about why they sing and who they sing for. As a writer, I often relate things to the craft of writing. Here’s some questions to ask yourself about your writing/blogging career.
The first question asked was who the student is singing for. In this case, I’ll ask, who are you writing for? The answer may appear simple, but have you given deep thought to who you really write for? Do you write for yourself? the reader? or maybe both?
Many singers, and writers alike, do it for the audience; for the attention, to give pleasure to others. Some do it for self-serving purposes–simply because they love it and want to do it.
Writing for the audience is a great motivation to improve your writing skills. If you’re just writing for yourself, more often than not you won’t present your best work.
What drives you to write? Is it something deep within or because you can give something to the audience? Is it the passion to share knowledge or just the passion of knowledge itself?
Do you want your audience to feel at home? Do you want them to leave with a sense of feeling empowered and that they are special? Do you show gratitude towards them for taking the time to be there?
Do you want to inspire change in your audience? Change generally happens on an emotional level. Are you engaging the emotions of your audience? People are emotional creatures. They spend money and react faster due to an emotional response more than they do from a logical standpoint.
How many singers have touched you emotionally? They did this with the power of their voice. A writer does this through the power of words.
The bottom line of the article was to sing from a place of power. You can apply that to your blog and writing career–write from a place of power; the power within you that compels you to write in the first place. This is how a singer reaches his/her audience. A writer can reach the audience with the same enthusiasm and place of power.
Image courtesy: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laport_singing.JPG
I really appreciated your post Patti, you know it made me realize a few things as a blogger that I forgot. It's my first time reading this blog, and I am glad it was a thought provoking one I look forward to some more of your post in the future.
Nice thoughts! Writing for audience definitely makes you present your best content and works you towards perfection. But there should be balance I believe. If you write only with audience in mind, you won't satisfy yourself. I can remember case with Sir Arther Conan Doyle. He was sick of writing sherlock holmes stories, but just because audience wanted more of them, he had reincarnate Holmes even after he killed him in his earlier novel. That's what can make a writer feel really helpless at the hands of readers.
Great Post Patti! I totally relate with your sentiments about how a singer uses the power of their voice to affect change in us, we as bloggers need to us the power of our words to awaken that emotional connection with our readers. Kudos!
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. BEGIN IT NOW – Goethe
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